Synthesis and Electrocatalytic Properties of Pt–Cu Worm-like Nanowires

Abstract

One-pot synthesis method has been proposed for preparing monodispersed and sub-10 nm Pt–Cu worm-like nanowires. The obtained nanowires were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. According to the experiment results, it can be found that the reaction time, the temperature and the amounts of surfactants can influence the morphology of Pt–Cu nanowires. Moreover, the prepared Pt–Cu alloys and commercial Pt black were used as catalysts to test their electrocatalytic activity by means of cyclic voltammetry in a 0.5 M H2SO4 + 1 M CH3OH aqueous solution, and Pt–Cu nanowires exhibited significantly enhanced catalytic activity toward the methanol oxidation compared with commercial Pt black.